


Returning

by blueboxdrifter



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Broccoli boi, Chopper loves his baby bro, Ezras around just not for this, F/M, Hera loves this boy, IN SPACE!, Jace and Poe are a thing okay?, M/M, Multi, Other, Post rebels, Sabine is probably leading her people, Star Wars Spoilers, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer, Zeb and Kallus are leading the Lasats, but probably bi like his dad, my gay son, so freaking much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 23:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21382249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxdrifter/pseuds/blueboxdrifter
Summary: Jacen receives a call, and heads back home to help the Resistance.More introspective than action or plot based.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Poe Dameron/Jacen Syndulla, kanera - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Returning

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact on how this piece came to be. Immediately after watching the ROS trailer (and freaking out like the rest of the Rebels fans when the Ghost showed up) I started creating a head canon that it was Jacen flying his mum’s ship. Posted a screenshot of that bit of the trailer on my Instagram story with the last line Jacen says in this fic as a caption. Then one of my artist friends contacted me and asked if they could use it in a piece they were making. When they finished, I was screaming with happiness, and knew I had to give it a back story. Here it is! (Image in link at end)

Jacen stood at the bottom of the Ghost’s ramp and took in the sight of his childhood home. Coming back after so long away was a strange feeling, but also right. A comfort in these mad times. Though he tried to visit as often as possible, it had been over ten years since he’d hugged his mother on this very ramp, his packed bag at his feet, and a new life waiting beyond with the promise of adventure.

And for awhile it had been exactly that. A young man out on his own for the first time. Taking whatever jobs were available, an added bonus if he was lucky enough to fly for his employers. Always a new crew, star systems he had never visited with his mother, spaceports on increasingly exotic worlds with even more fascinating inhabitants. If the money ran out, he’d always found somewhere to hole up on cold nights, even though Hera was only a com call away and would have come running to his rescue. He’d been determined to make it on his own.

For a time he’d even become something of a legend in the racing community. The training from his mother was second to none. After all she’d trained some of the best pilots in the old Rebellion, the New Republic, and now for the Resistance. And with his other supernatural abilities purely owing to his father’s genetics, his flying skills rivaled most other pilots.

So good in fact that Jacen has been banned in some systems from participating on suspicion of cheating, though they could never prove any such accusations. The last time he’d raced at Colossus Station, Jacen had left every one of the Aces in the dust, walking away with the winner’s prize, more credits than he’d ever owned in his life, yet also securing yet another racing ban. 

Striding into the cargo bay, Jace smiled at the memory. To celebrate, as well as give the Colossus authorities a ‘fuck you’ for the ban, he and Poe got themselves well and truly rip roaring drunk at Aunt Z’s that night with the winnings. Somehow ending up out on a landing platform in the early morning hours, on their backs laughing hysterically at something neither of them could remember through the hazy drunken memories, they’d watched the sky slowly lighten before being told to shove off by a very cranky port authority. He missed those carefree days.

He missed the freedom of youth. He missed the sound of his best friend, sometime more than his best friend, laughing beside him, his dark eyes glinting happily in the early morning haze. 

But times had changed. The First Order had reared it’s ugly head, one thing led to another, and soon enough Jacen was flying stealth missions for the Resistance. No one could fly like him, and he’d never come close to being caught. It was rare that the First Order even detected his presence.

Old uncle Kallus had even sat him down once and asked him to give some thought to possibly taking up the Fulcrum mantel someday. And he couldn’t blame them for wanting someone with his skill set in such a position. An ace pilot, effectively trained as a Jedi and Mandalorian warrior (though as far as he knew he didn’t have an ounce of Mando blood in him, but aunt Bean had insisted), not to mention his time spent on Ryloth learning traditional Twi’leki combat and ceremonial rites.

When asked how much he knew about his mother’s heritage, he’d admitted to knowing little. As heir to the Syndulla family legacy, grandpa Cham wasted no time correcting such a gap in his studies. Many hot Rylothian summers spent sweating in the dry heat, getting knocked on his ass by former Free Ryloth agents, and honing his Force abilities with Master Ezra the rest of the time. Not how most sentients spent their teenage years, but then he’d never been like most people. 

So while he understood that the Resistance viewed him as a valuable asset, another deadly weapon in their arsenal, sometimes he wished he could just be Jacen, and leave everything else behind. And that’s exactly what he could do when he came home to his mother.

Though she held high rank in the Resistance, she had never viewed him as just a tool. In her eyes, no matter how big he’d grown, he would always be her baby boy who tried smuggling Lothcats into the Ghost, who would tiptoe across the hall in the middle of the night when a nightmare woke him and snuggle into her soothing embrace, clinging to a lek until he fell asleep. 

But as much as he wished this was just another carefree visit home where they would debate the latest racing crafts over Spiran caf and spicy Rylothian tea and watch comedy holos, wheezing with laughter until their sides hurt, today was for the Resistance.

Reaching for the durasteel ladder and ascending into the heart of the ship, Jacen recalled Poe’s solemn voice on a holo-transmission received just a few days before. It had been unexpected and more than a little awkward considering the way they had departed last time. When their fast friendship had blossomed into something more intense, it had been wonderful. Right up to the point where it wasn’t.

Poe had quietly and with an air of finality ended things between them, and Jacen had lost his head a little, completely forgetting all of Master Ezra’s Jedi training, sobbing and pleading on his knees for Poe to stay. It had stung like the bite of the Ryl beetle, but time had a way of dulling the pain. Yet hearing Poe’s voice again brought the memories and heartbreak flooding back in an instant. 

Jacen had been sitting in his cramped quarters on the medical frigate he’d boarded passage on, heading off to a new system with the promise of a piloting job waiting for him on the other end. His knees pulled up to his chin and messy green hair in desperate need of a trim falling around his face and in his eyes, he’d heard the tinny chirping beeps of the holo communicator demanding his attention. Upon digging it out from his bag and setting it on his small bunk, he accepted the incoming transmission. 

No face, just a floating blue Resistance symbol glowing in the semi dark. But the voice was familiar within seconds. 

“Hey, Jace. Um, listen, it’s Poe. Although I guess that’s obvious.” The luminescent symbol jumped slightly as the voice laughed without humor.  
  
“Hey I know you and I didn’t exactly... well, it is what it is. And I’m sorry. I really am. You deserved better than that. Better than me. I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but your mother asked for me to check up on you. Can’t say no to the commands of our general.”

The joking tone wasn’t lost on Jacen. Hera had practically helped raise Poe, and he admired her so much, he’d do anything she asked. 

“Jacen, listen. She sounded scared. She tries to hide it, but I can tell. She didn’t say in as many words, but I know she didn’t want you to sense it too and come home out of worry. Things are happening though, and command is worried. You’ve been gone for awhile, so maybe the rumors haven’t reached you yet, but the First Order is planning something big. Bigger than we’ve ever seen, and desperate times, well, you know...

“I understand why you wanted to stay out of everything. But I think we need you to come back, Jace. She won’t say it, but I think Hera needs you too.

“I’d never admit this normally, but you’re the best pilot we’ve got. Hell, the best ANYTHING we’ve got. How’s that for knocking my ego down a peg? You were always going on about that.”

Another chuckle. Jacen’s heart had clenched at the sound, but he kept listening no matter how much he wanted to toss the cursed thing out the nearest airlock. The bit about his mother being worried obliged him to finish. 

“I bet you're halfway to Ryloth to visit your granddad. I heard about him by the way. I hope he’s doing better. But he would tell you the same thing, and you know it. We’d have an advantage and a greater chance of victory if you’re with us. Force knows I can’t make you do anything. Learned that lesson a long time ago. But at least think it over.”

A pause. Then just as Jacen reached to turn it off, Poe spoke again, softer this time. 

“And Jacen? I really am sorry. What we had was good, and I was scared and fucked it all up. If I... we survive this... maybe we can talk? Anyway, you know how to find me. Dameron out.”

And the transmission ended, leaving the room with a charged silence, and Jacen realised he’d been holding his breath for a good minute. Falling back onto the hard bunk surface, he stared at the ceiling and carefully considered his options.

It hadn’t taken long before he’d come to a decision and at their next stop booked passage on the fastest ship going in the opposite direction, Lothal bound. 

He knew his mum would be there. It was the anniversary of his father’s death after all. His “Force Day” they had always called it. The day he’d sacrificed himself, becoming one with the Force, so that they could live. Ezra, Sabine, Hera, and their unborn child, the existence of which Hera had later insisted he’d known about the whole time.

“He kept trying to tell me something right at the end. And I’m sure that something was about you, Jacen.” she’d told him on one trip to Lothal when he was old enough to understand the true extent of Kanan’s sacrifice.

“And he would have loved you so so much. That I’m sure of.”

He recalled the way she brushed back his hair, smoothing it behind his slightly pointed green-tinged ears in motherly affection as they stood before Sabine’s mural, rebellious tears slipping down her face before she could hide them.

He could feel her bittersweet sorrow dripping like dark Lothalian honey, and he’d hugged her tight around the knees before she dropped to pull him into an embrace. Even at such a young age, Jacen knew at that moment he would do anything in the universe, fight off any evil, to keep sadness from ever hurting his mother again. 

And though the pain of his fathers death had considerably abated since his early childhood, even now making his way through the halls of the Ghost to the cockpit, he could feel the solemnity in her Force signature. She’d long ago put her tears over his father to rest, but that didn’t stop her from wishing every day that he could have been there to watch Jacen grow up, to witness the end of the Empire. In short to just be here still with his family. 

Dragging his fingers along the smooth metal door, Jacen wondered if she finally transformed his old bedroom into extra storage space like he kept telling her to do. Somehow he doubted it.

“Well what if you need somewhere to stay, luv?” She’d say, fussing over his latest hair style.

“Yes, I know you could sleep in Sabine’s or Zeb’s rooms, but wouldn’t you be more comfortable in your own? Plus the cargo hold is plenty big. What do I need extra storage for?” 

Quietly stepping into the threshold of the open cockpit, Jacen paused a moment before making himself known. Hera sat serenely in the pilots seat, her throne for over forty years, gazing out at the grasslands and cone-like mountains in some sort of deep contemplation. One lek dangled behind her while the other hung over her shoulder, her fingers kneading it absently and giving away the worry on her mind.

Upon seeing her, Jacen’s own worries crept into his mind. Was her color slightly off? Perhaps she wasn’t getting enough minerals. Or was it stress from grandpa Cham’s condition and the impending First Order attack? Perhaps she’d been overworking again. Or just the annual reminder that her original first mate would never again fight by her side. 

Taking a breath, Jacen lightly knocked on the doorframe. Pulled out of her trance, Hera turned halfway around in confusion before jumping to her feet.  
  
“Jacen! Oh, luv, I knew you would come!”

In a flurry of swinging lekku and outstretched arms, she rushed to greet him. 

His worries for her momentarily put aside, he met her half way, enveloping his dear sweet mother into a hug. It still marvelled him how small she was in his grasp. He’d clearly inherited Kanan’s stature, though Cham often insisted it was from his side of the family. (“A true Syndulla, this boy! No doubt!”)

Jacen felt a small gloved hand smooth down the back of his head, right were his lekku would be if he were born with them. A pleasant tingling radiate out from her soft touch, a sort of phantom lekku sense.

When he was very little, and tried to describe the odd sensation in his limited vocabulary, Hera in a panic had contacted grandpa Cham, begging him to use his resources to track down any other human Twi’lek hybrids. Turns out he was a perfectly healthy child. A completely normal phenomena.

Half Twi’lek children who never grew lekku often still developed the part of their brain that registered lek senses. Like having a missing limb but still being able to feel it. Jacen may look like his father on the outside, but there was more than enough of his mother on the inside, both biologically and in spirit, no one could challenge his Rylothian decent. 

“Hi, ma.” He said, dropping a kiss onto the top of her head. “Bet you weren’t expecting me, were you?” 

She pulled away and looked up at him, petting his newly shaven cheek affectionately. “Not at all. Poe had his doubts, but I knew you’d show up. That good heart of yours always wins out in the end.”

He looked away self-consciously. How did she always see the best in everyone? 

“Oh, you... you talked to Poe? I mean recently?” 

She smiled, her jade eyes sparkling.

“I did. Earlier today actually. He sent coordinates for a rendezvous.”

A touch of sadness crept into her voice. “I know you two aren’t on the best of terms, but you’ll work it out. When you meet someone like that, you don’t give up on them.”

Jacen slumped in her hold. “Ma,” he grumbled, “do we have to do this now?” 

“I’m just saying,” she squeezed him a little tighter despite his reluctance on the subject, “neither of us would be standing here right now if your father and I gave up on each other every time we had a fight.” 

He let out a huff. “Okay, yeah. But this is different.” 

“I don’t see how. Love is love.”

“Mom...can we just—”

“Alright, whatever you say. I’ll drop it.” She stepped back, her hands raised in mock surrender. But Jacen could tell by that look in her eyes and the set of her lekku that this discussion was far from over.

She turned and beckoned him to the front. He followed and, to his surprise, she sidled to the right and dropped herself into the copilot’s seat, motioning for him to take her place of pride on the left. A slight hesitation, and he lowered himself onto the pilot’s seat. Reaching across she took one of his hands in both of her’s. 

“There is one thing I’ve been meaning to talk to you about though.” Her smile looked more fragile than before, and Jacen’s worries came flooding back. 

“Of course. What is it?”

“As you know, we’ve been hit hard. Being a high ranking general, now more than ever I’ll be needed at Command. And you’ve become a better pilot than I could ever hope to be.”

Jacen wanted to argue that everything he’d learned as a pilot had come straight from her, but he stayed silent as she gripped his fingers tighter.

“And now with my father’s condition...”

Their eyes briefly met in shared concern.

“Well I wouldn’t ask this of you on just any visit home, but I think it’s time.”

He sat up a little straighter “Anything. Whatever you need me to do, name it.” 

“Jacen... I want you to— I want you to take over command of the Ghost.” 

Jacen sat in stunned silence, staring over at her.

Hera continued after a moment, “At least take her out for me this time when the call comes. Poe said we should be ready to jump at a moments notice within the next standard rotation. If you decide to decline the offer after that, I’ll understand.”

Her eyes briefly touched his before glancing around the room, taking in the memories stored in the very walls.

“Either way, this old girl will be yours someday.”

Jacen remained silent. What could he say? How could he possibly accept such an honour, the weightiest responsibility he was likely to ever take on?

A grumbling squawk and a crash sounded from down the hall, breaking the tension. 

“And Chopper of course.”

Mother and son laughed in shared levity. Hera gave his hand a final pat and let go.

“He could be you very first copilot just like he was for me.”

“Yeah. Didn’t he try to kill dad quite a few times when he joined?”

She shrugged with a fond smirk.

“Oh they both tried to off each other Force only knows how many times. Chop was quite the over protective dad back then. And Kanan was... _very_ handsome.”

“Ha! Okay, nothing I want to hear about. Please, mom.”

“And I’d never tell.” She chuckled deviously, momentarily hit with the memories of young love, impassioned and frenzied.

“But I don’t think anything will get that bolt brain to ever leave you side.” Jacen reasoned. “What makes you think he’ll just come along with me willingly?” 

“Oh he will. He moped around for months after you left that first time. He’d insist that everything was much better that the ‘young organic’ had moved out, but I know that droid. He wanted to be with you. Making sure you were safe. He’s a cranky old thing, but he really loves you deep down in his circuits. He’d follow you just about anywhere.” 

“Yeah, well, I guess he’s not so bad. What is he doing back there anyway?”

Turning toward the still open door, Jacen yelled down the ship, “Hey, Chop! Get in here, buddy!” 

An excited flurry of binary warbled back down the hall. 

<WA-wAH?! Hrr-RA-wa-wa!>

“Okay, yeah! Well I’m here now! Keep your struts on, ya old man.”

<waH-RA-waWA? REEE-HURrrrrr.>

“Nice to see you too.” 

Jacen left the pilots chair and squatted down to greet the droid whom he essentially considered his older brother, patting his orange top in familial affection. 

“What would you say to running some missions in this ole girl with me?” Jacen rapped twice on the floor. 

Chop inched back a tiny bit, his receptor twitching almost imperceptibly toward Hera. 

<grrr-pAk-tK. Wa-Waaahhh-GrrRA?>

“Mom’s gotta stay at Command for awhile. But I think we’ll be okay.”

He looked back to his mother, tears sparkling afresh in her eyes.

“I think we’re gonna be okay.” He said again holding her gaze. He wouldn’t let her down. 

Looking back later, Jacen would remember the day in a blur of motion and chaos. Rendezvousing with a Resistance ship to take Hera to her station, jumping to Poe’s coordinates and seeing the sheer maddening number of ships that arrived to assist the fight against the First Order, the explosions, loses and victories. But all of it stilled when he recalled bidding his mother good luck and farewell at the airlock off the Ghost. 

She hugged him tightly once again.

“I’m so proud of you. And your father would be too. Funny this is happening on his Force day. I think he’s watching out for us still.”

She smiled and brushed an errant strand of dark green hair from his eyes. “You go show him what you can do, luv.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted and kissed her on the cheek before she left him to his new command. 

“Alright, Chop. You ready for this?” He asked as he strode back into the cockpit and made ready for the jump into hyperspace. 

—

Rey marvelled at the array before her. She’d never seen so many ships in her entire life! And more were arriving by the minute. 

“Look at all of them.” Finn stood at her shoulder, an expression of awe on his handsome face. “No way they stand a chance now!” He looked down at her, real hope and mirth in his brilliant smile. 

“Well, that’s the idea anyway.” Poe said from the back, “And hope is what we’re betting on. But somebody once told me hope can topple empires.”

Next to Rey, Chewbacca let our a roar of encouragement. 

“That’s right, Chewy,” she said, “it’s been done before. We can do it again.” 

Just then another ship dropped out of hyperspace fairly close to their location. Jewel-shaped and battered, paint fading with age, it looked like it had seen about as much action as the Falcon. It swooped in an almost poetic arc just beneath them. 

Poe caught himself smiling. He knew that ship well and the unique flight style of its pilot. He hoped Jacen had listened to the whole message. No matter what happened, he hoped they could see each other one more time. 

“Is that the Ghost?” Rey asked, looking back at him knowingly.

Poe cleared his throat. “Uhh, yeah. That’s her.” 

“Well let’s hope this amazing pilot is as good as you claim.”

Well... maybe I did go on a bit more than I need to, Poe thought in amusement. Said pilot really was amazing in most things though, flying only one of them. That was the truth. 

The coms crackled with an incoming hail. The Ghost was trying to contact them. 

Rey nodded to Chewy to allow it through.

A clear strong voice filled the cockpit of the Falcon, Poe catching his breath at the sound of it. 

“Falcon, this is Spectre Seven.

The Ghost is with you.

Let’s kick their asses.”

<https://www.instagram.com/p/B4F2U7CKoiP/>

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Still in the process of editing small details, so if you notice something, let me know.  
Kudos are welcome, but comments are pure gold.


End file.
